HARTFORD, Conn. — When grandparents and older relatives are called back into parenting duties, it’s rarely for a good reason. While many say they wouldn’t trade their circumstances for anything, they also need help making ends meet.
Just over 2 million grandparents are living with kids they have to care for – almost 20,000 of whom live in Connecticut, according to the U.S. Census.
Peter Osowiecki is one of them. He and his wife care for their great-grandson, Max, in Enfield.
“We've had custody of him since he was 8, 9 months old,“ said Osowiecki, who said Max calls him and his wife Dad, and Mom.
“We wound up with Max because he was in a very bad situation with my granddaughter,” Osowiecki said, “and it was either we take him or he would have probably wound up going to the state.”
In Hartford, Susan Clark is taking care of 10-year-old Janiyah McCall, the granddaughter of Clark’s relative.
“She’s a very unique person, very smart,” Clark said, “she's an 'A' student, 'A+' actually.”
Despite the joy of seeing McCall blossom, the pain that brought them together is right under the surface.
“Her mother is, you know, taking care of herself for other reasons, and her father passed away,” Clark said, while fighting back tears.
Thankfully, though, there’s a happy ending here. Clark and McCall were accepted into the CRT Generations Program, run by the Community Renewal Team.
“The Generations program is a program for grandparents who are raising their grandchildren; they have full custody of their grandchildren, a lot of them are here simply because they don't have the resources to go elsewhere,” said Chara May, the CRT Generations Program Manager.
“We do a little bit of everything,” May said. “We provide case management services; we also do intergenerational activities year-round.”
CRT Generations comes across as more of a whole neighborhood than a program. There are a variety of townhomes in which the grandparents and grandchildren can live at the intersection of Barbour and Capen Streets in Hartford. The townhomes are all ringed around a common area and parking lot and are near a community center that serves as the neighborhood gathering place.
“We're like a little jewel here in the city of Hartford,” said Angel Lee, who manages the townhomes.
Lee said the common area provides children with a place to play and a place for the grandparents to gather and help each other.
“It takes a village to raise a child, so we look out for all the children, too," Clark said.
The CRT Generations campus is an absolute game-changer for the grandparents who are lucky to live here, but unfortunately, few get that lucky.
Osowiecki said he and other seniors with whom he’s spoken have gotten stuck in a sort of financial limbo because they make too much money to qualify for a lot of financial aid. Still, at the same time, they don’t make enough to live comfortably while also raising another child.
“If it was me and my wife, we'd be OK,” Osowiecki said, “and now adding a child into the mix, just the grocery bill alone is $300 a week.“
Osowiecki said he came out of retirement to work part-time, but that extra income puts financial aid even further out of reach.
“When you have a retirement like we do, you're not allowed to get anything,” he said.
Osowiecki said the Department of Children and Families hadn’t helped because of a custody decision he had to make early on – before he knew the full ramifications.
“We went through the probate court system instead of going through family court because we didn't know which way to go,” he said, “It's very confusing between the two different systems.”
Osowiecki said he has lobbied several state lawmakers for help. State Rep. Tom Arnone even introduced a bill in the January 2023 session to give grandparents the same financial support as foster families– but it didn’t pass.
“You know, as you get older, you get very frustrated running into brick walls all the time,” Osowiecki said.
However, Osowiecki and his wife have gotten some help. His town, Enfield, has over 130 grandfamilies, enough to start a support group, complete with babysitting and a social worker who helps connect them to local resources.
“We just found out through our last meeting about the Food Share, that that's here in town,” Osowiecki said, “but it's still, you know, if it wasn't for them telling [us], we wouldn't have known.”
That’s what many seniors in this position say they want – more programs, more funding for those programs, and more help finding the ones that will work for them.
“Call your representatives,” Osowiecki said, “seek out these services through social workers in your town. Come to one of our meetings that we have, don't be afraid, you know, you're not in this alone.”
To learn more about the CRT Generations Program, click here.
Tim Lammers is an anchor at FOX61 News. He can be reached at Tlammers@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X, and Instagram.
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